How green are we really?

There’s a pall of smoke over Sydney. The World's scientists are debating climate policy at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Madrid. We need to ask ourselves the question - how sustainable are we as landscape architects?

The reality is that we don’t know. Few if any landscape architects measure the carbon footprint of their projects.

We have a deadline. The landmark Paris agreement commits Australia to being carbon neutral – for everything – by 2050. So in 31 years’ time, every park, streetscape, urban plaza and playground needs to be carbon neutral for its entire design life. 

For more than 60,000 years, the Aboriginal custodians of our country actively and sustainably managed the Australian environment. In the last 230 years, our society has detrimentally impacted that environment, and continues to do so.

Australia is one of the heaviest emitters per capita on the planet. If everyone lived like we do we would need five Earths. 

The impacts of climate change will not be felt equally. Climate change does not discriminate. Some of the most vulnerable will be greatly affected, including the elderly and our near Pacific neighbours who contribute very little emissions of their own.

As Landscape Architects, we should see ourselves as stewards of the environment. We need to step-up a level and embrace a new paradigm for climate positive design.

This means designs that sequester more greenhouse gasses than are emitted over a project’s entire lifetime. This needs to be accounted for in the design stage, construction stage, life of the project and its eventual demolition.

To embrace climate positive design, there are three things Landscape Architects can do:

1. Understand the environmental and carbon impacts of what we do from cradle to grave through evidence-based research.
2. Manage and mitigate these impacts through good planning and design.
3. Advocate and educate for better understanding of carbon neutral and Climate Positive design with our clients, colleagues, collaborators, stakeholders and Government.

The sooner this happens, the greater the benefits through avoided emissions and more carbon sequestration.

Until recently there were very few tools to help us measure the carbon footprint of our projects. The Climate Positive pathfinder developed in California by Landscape Architect Pamela Conrad as good starting point.

The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) has declared a climate and biodiversity loss emergency. I have worked with AILA to develop their draft Climate Positive Design position statement for member review. Members are invited to comment on the position statement before 19 December.

In the end, it is really a moral and ethical question. If we are stewards of the landscape then what part are we going to play? Do we quietly follow, or do we lead? 

We can use the power of good design to create a healthier, more equitable and sustainable world.

#AILA #climatepositivedesign #climateemergency